Friday, August 18, 2006

At the launch of DD Urdu on August 15, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, 'Der aayad, durust aayad' in response to the delay in launch of the Urdu channel though all major languages of the country have national channel for over a decade now.On this occasion, Editor of the daily Pratap K Narendra questioned why Urdu was made to suffer so much after independence. Narendra spoke about the difficulties facing the Urdu press and said that without bribe the govt. ads can't be obtained. (Pratap and Milap are the Urdu papers of Delhi from pre-partition era and have Hindutva leanings, read mostly by elderly Sikhs and Punjabi/Sindhi-speaking Hindus mostly from Pakistan)In fact, Urdu channel was never a priority with the centre. It was only after pressure came from all quarters and government faced embarrassment in parliament several times over queries regarding the reason for not establishing a channel in Urdu that the decision was taken.The All India Radio's Urdu service that is immensely popular has also suffered this apathy. Its transmission is never clear and you always find one or the other transmitters non-functional causing disruption. Still, it is satisfying that Urdu has a national channel now. Yet to see it though. Will have to convince the cable-wala and then only I can comment about the content of the 7:30 hr news programmes that it will broadcast every 24 hrs.Hayat LakhnaviPoet Hayat Lakhnavi passed away on Tuesday. He was son of famous Urdu poet Azeez Lakhanvi. Hayat had four collections Hisar-e-Aab, Nadi-ke-Paar ka Manzar, Dariya RawaaN Rahe & Wasiila to his credit. He had recieved Mir Taqi Mir award and Delhi Urdu Academy awards amongst many others.

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